Making Progress...

Just thought I'd post a couple of pictures of two small designs that I am currently working on.  I hope to have them completed very soon.  

The first is going to be a greeting card design for Christmas.  It's a group of ornaments hanging from a string of Christmas lights.  It's a pattern from one of my cross-stitching magazines from the UK.

The butterfly piece is a sample I am doing for my friend Kim.  She is expecting her 2nd daughter in early November and would love to have the baby room completed with a butterfly theme.  She would really like a small baby quilt with cross-stitch butterflies to use in the room.  I found this pattern in a cross-stitch magazine and thought I'd show Kim the finished piece to see if she would like this design for the quilt.  If not, I can always use it for something else, but if so, I'll have one of nine butterflies completed.

This last one is a small design for another Christmas card.  I completed it last month and added it to my "2014 Smalls SAL - Completed Projects" page but I thought I'd add it to the main blog page as well.  I think he's cute!

TUSAL Progress - May & June 2014 Update

Last month, I accidentally forgot to post my ORTs for May so this month is a combination of both May and June 2014.  I did do quite a bit of cross-stitching and Hardanger during this time, completing a piece for a friend's wedding and at least one small item that I hope to make into a Christmas card.  I started working on two other small designs for cards that I hope to have finished soon.  And I did manage to work on the Scenic Bridge a little.  Just a little. :-)

The next posting is due July 26, 2014.  If you're not sure what the heck a "TUSAL" or "ORT" is, be sure to check out the link to the TUSAL Challenge by clicking on the link on the main blog page.  

Happy Stitching!!! 

It's Back from the Framer!

The Hardanger piece that I worked on for my friend Kelley's wedding is finally back from the framer.  I had a hard time choosing a frame for the piece.  They really didn't have exactly what I was looking for or at least what I had in my head; however, I think the one I found is pretty too.  And I'm please with the way that it turned out!  You can't even see my little "boo-boo" if you don't know where to look.  I'll present it to her next Tuesday when my entire team is in the office.  I really hope that she likes it and enjoys it in her home.  It was nice to sit and work on it in the evenings and it made me really remember why I love Hardanger.

Just in Time for Wedding Bells

I finally finished the Hardanger piece that I have been working on for my friend Kelley who is getting married this Saturday, May 17th.  It took me a little while to figure out how best to add the names and date to the design.  I actually ended up using characters from three different fonts!  I think the color and sizing works much better than what I originally stitched.  I sure hope so anyway.  I removed the lettering FOUR times to finally get it to the way it currently is now!  I just hope that once it's washed and ironed that it retains it's shape and helps to cover up the area where I had to remove those few stitches.  It's probably just me but my eyes seem to go right to that area when I look at the piece.  [sigh]  Hopefully, it's just me.

Behind the actual design, I'm adding a piece of silk fabric in a similar shade of blue.  This should peek through the openings in the fabric to give a bit more color to the finished project.


The completed design and part of the backing fabric.

Once I get it prepped, it's off to the framers.  I was a bit too late to get it framed for the actual wedding day but I hope to give it to her in a couple of weeks once she's back from her honeymoon and is back at the office.  At least I completed the design before the wedding bells sounded!  I'll post another photo once the framing is completed and it's ready to be wrapped up for Kelley.


The finished design before washing and ironing.

Close-up of the center.

Scenic Bridge Update - 5.12.14

As I mentioned in my last post, I joined an online SAL through Facebook that ran from Friday, 5/9/14 through Mother's Day on Sunday, 5/11/14.  I did make a little progress but wasn't able to stitch as much as I wanted to.  However, it was for a good reason as my husband's family came into town for the weekend and a local barbeque festival held on Saturday.  We had a great time over the weekend and it's always good to see my in-laws.  I'm lucky that way! :-)  On the down side though, I wasn't able to complete as much on Scenic Bridge as I had wanted.  The good news is that I believe there is another online SAL coming up very soon so I'll keep stitching away on this one.  You can see my progress in the photo below.  The top picture is my "Before" and the bottom is the "After" photo.

Progress as of 5.8.14 (top) and 5.11.14 (bottom)